Tree Hugging in the Middle of Nowhere

Bush Camp Baobab

Last weekend, although we were supposed to have been confined to base, we actually went out to our friends' bush camp (known in this blog as The Middle of Nowhere - mentioned here and here). 

It was kind of a hard week and escaping from (relative) civillisation was just what the doctor ordered - so we set off after work on Saturday on the transit road through the National Park, stopping only for a herd of very shiny, well-fed looking buffalo to cross over.  

Hot, blue and sunny weather was a welcome break from the recent gloomy raininess, and naturally called for a quick stop in Mabele village to purchase ice cold Hansa beers at the lovely Kanini Kanini General Dealer &  High Life Bar. The general weirdness of this transaction brought back memories of a Botswana we used to know about 20 years back!

We found that great progress had been made out at the camp, and enjoyed staying in one of the newly established future guest tents. Very romantic design, set upon teak decking, in amongst the natural indigenous trees.  A piece of heaven...

Tent hiding amongst the trees

We enjoyed an evening round the fire, gazing up at the Milky Way and the dazzling Stars, liberated from the cloudiness by the clear weather... 

Waking up the next morning to the birdsong surrounding the tent, I opened my sleepy eyes - straight into sensory overload! An astounding, wild, red sunrise was busy going on, as viewed through the huge, uncurtained mesh windows! Alas, being half asleep at the time, the colours had rapidly faded into tameness by the time I could get to a camera to capture it...

As ever, I just revelled in being in the bush. And indulged my delight in hugging, and if possible curling up in, great big, warm, earthy baobab trees!

On the way back, we stopped numerous times - to just enjoy the pure silence, the sheer seasonal abundance of the trees and undergrowth, and also to pick some Sausage Tree fruit for medicinal purposes...

Sausage Tree, (Kigelia Africana) with fruit

Looking up through the stunning vegetation

Oh, and what would a trip through the lush vegetation be without frantic reversing and climbing inside a thorny acacia tree, to capture a rambling, creeping, Flame Lily in full flower. This is a slightly different colour scheme to the others featured in earlier blog posts - but still a delight to behold in the wild!

Farewell 2008!

This mysterious, masked person - who could she possibly be? Haha! Seeing out the old year in some kind of style ... in a more upmarket version of the middle of nowhere (where else?!). 

The staff at Selinda Camp, where we stayed, handmade these cool masks to get the small group of guests in the festive mood! We all partied together - South Africans, Spaniards, Welsh, Germans and the Batswana staff! Much dancing, the usual mad session of hugs for virtual strangers at New Year, but also loads of laughs and new friendships made! I fear a bit too much vino was consumed by yours truly, but the New Year spirit was extremely infectious! All my absent friends and loved ones, as some of course already know - rest assured that I had a drink for you and thought of and missed you all..   

To backtrack a few days...we were delighted and so lucky to be invited by management to enjoy 4 nights in the exquisite and romantic Selinda Reserve in northern Botswana. On Monday we jumped onto a small charter plane, armed with chocolates (gifts from civillisation for our friends working out at the camps) and of course the usual bits and pieces for their computers!

Only about a 50 minute flight away from Kasane, and close to the border with Namibia, this place inspires me to fling all sorts of biblical brochure-type words onto this page regarding eden, paradise, heaven, sublimity.. and since they've landed here, I'll just leave them right where they are!

A typical view: water, floodplain, palm treeline and hippo amongst the waterlilies!

Dinner table being prepared at Selinda Camp.

I'm now compelled to try and describe the sunsets over the Selinda spillway: the water glinting in the last moments of daylight; random rhythms of surfacing/submerging hippos creating ripples and bubbles, which break up the reflections and gently jostle the fields of water lilies... 

The treeline of palms and delicate leafy silhouettes picked out in jet black against the coloured backgrounds. Backgrounds plural, as the colours shift and change constantly. Pastels, sepias, oranges, golds and purples, all with their corresponding mirror images in the water below.

Selinda Reserve is a pristine wilderness, lush and green at this time of year, where you come across so many different species of animals and birds - despite it being the wet season where the animals don't need to travel so far to find water.  Elephants, hippos, warthogs, impala, zebra, kudu, tsessebe, giraffes, wild dog, leopard, lechwe, waterbuck... eagles, rollers, bee-eaters, francolin, guinea fowl and countless water birds.  

Let's not forget all the smaller creatures such as the dung beetles, lizards, fireflies, frogs in full nocturnal chorus... and, to top it all, an entire thicket of Flame Lily buds hiding in the undergrowth near our beautiful tented accommodation - ready to burst into flame for the next future occupant!

This is me in my absolute element: reclining on an anthill, enjoying a sundowner and absorbing that magical late afternoon golden light... 

After New Year we moved across the Reserve, to the fabulous and luxurious Zarafa Camp which almost appears to float above the floodplain, on the edge of the Zibadianja lagoon. Here we luxuriated, dipping in our private plunge pool, experiencing the indescribable views over the lagoon, and enjoyed (as usual) the great company of the management staff! The entire camp is designed in the most imaginative and eco-friendly safari style, with the gorgeous decking in the main area seeming to flow right into the lagoon itself! 

It really was a sad occasion, leaving the beautiful place and people, but yes.. back to reality with us, and all ready for a most wonderful 2009! I know it will be a fantastic year, all the better for having started off with such an awesome Safari getaway! 

So, back home to the Chobe River... here's an aerial view of our part of the world, taken during one of our flights. Also not such a bad place to live, come to think of it... :-) 

Satellite Magic in the Middle of Nowhere

Back at the bush camp in the absolute middle of nowhere – our mission, to install a Vsat internet system. So…a friendly chat via satellite BGan & Skype with the techie lads in Cape Town at the other end of the continent, swing the big satellite dish around, wave around a high tech instrument that aligns perfectly to the improbable and mysterious satellite orbiting kilometres above us in outer space – fiddle with a few settings and voila, permanent internet floating all around us and the bush camp is Online! This always feels like a small piece of magic to me…

Being the go-between - chatting to Cape Town

Having sorted out the communications - solar power and inverters quietly keeping everything going, it was a delight to take some time out and enjoy spending time with our friends in their unspoilt corner of the world, complete with a mini “baobab island”.

I enjoyed some alone time for reading and contemplation. For me, there’s something magically soothing and restoring about the African bush. The silence, broken only by insect and bird sounds; the blanketing humidity and greenery of this time of year; the sudden flares of sunshine/blue sky, competing with the brooding build-up of dark grey afternoon storm clouds.

Later in the afternoon, we escorted the tribe of dogs to a nearby water-filled pan where they splashed, wallowed, galloped and leaped to their hearts’ content! The arrival of the rain could not ruin their sheer joy in their watery adventure. Back at camp, nothing better than standing wetly next to the fire, feeling your clothes drying on you within seconds, whilst enjoying an ice cold bush sundowner!

Our sunset was absurdly colourful and changeable… from salmon and pale blue, to crimson, then purple and gold - finally fading to royal blue. Perhaps Tiennie’s photo can do it justice…

Eventually it was time to meander back home through the grasslands and palm treeseventually emerging on the fringes of the floodplain once more, ready to follow the river home to Kasane. There we found and photographed a profusion of wild red pincushiony lilies.

and of course had to stop in to buy some cokes at the wonderful “Kanini Kanini General Dealer and High Life Bar”before heading back to our comparatively civillised real world, for another working week!